Trading Short-Term Gain for Long-Term Success: An $850mm UBS Breakaway Story

With Barry Mitchell, Founder and Managing Director, Next Level Private

Why do so many top advisors opt to make a change when things seem good enough?

This is one of those episodes that answers that question and many more.

Barry Mitchell was a UBS advisor who built an extraordinary business at the firm. Yet, as Barry describes it, he felt the pull of entrepreneurialism to a world where he could serve as a true fiduciary to his clients.

That is, a world without the conflict of interests inherent in the big brokerage world; where client minimums are the advisor’s choice, not the firm’s; and free of the limitations that barred him from marketing as he wished and building a real community around being a “financial advocate” as opposed to a “financial advisor.”

So, in 2021, Barry and his team left UBS to launch Next Level Private, an independent firm that he built from the ground up, with support from a team of experts, as he puts it—including their custodian Pershing and a cast of other partners well-versed in building an RIA firm from transition process onward. (In full disclosure, Diamond Consultants is proud to have served as his guide through the due diligence and transition process.)

In this episode, Mindy Diamond asks Barry many of the questions advisors have around considering change, like:

• Why was he willing to mess with success?
• Why not opt for an outsized transition deal from another big firm?
• Why independence?
• What was it like making a non-Protocol move?
• What assumptions did he have that were ultimately proven incorrect?
• How did his clients respond?
• What about portability?
• And much more.

Plus, Barry shares how this change has impacted his business life—and whether he is achieving all that he sought out to.

It’s the one conversation to listen to from an industry peer who once had many of the same questions as you—offering the quintessential narrative around how to think about change, due diligence, and the transition process.

Related Resources

Industry Guru Bob Veres on Achieving Excellence and Building the Advisory Firm of the Future - A conversation with one of wealth management’s most influential thought leaders and the editor and publisher of Inside Information.

Diamond Consultants Advisor Transition Report 2022 – Focus on UBS - This comprehensive, data-driven report provides the answers that UBS advisors care most about – where their peers are moving to, why they are moving, and how they are moving – plus reveals insights specific to the firm and its advisors.

The Mysteries of UBS: Deciphering What Drives its Wins and Losses - UBS advisors describe a culture defined by wins and losses—and they are asking tough questions about what the future holds.

You can also listen to the full episode on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify.